deficit, how much more we spend than we take in, it's forecast to reach 7% of gdp this year. the biggest spending goes to medicare, medicaid, and especially social security. the solution is simple, but politically, it's difficult. raise revenues, that includes raising taxes and making more people pay taxes, and cut spending, including those popular entitlement programs. doing those two things now could hurt the economy in the near term. but if we don't start planning at least to rein in our spending, the economy would suffer even more in the long run. that's according to a study by economi economists. when a country's level of debt reaches 90% of gdp, its economy could shrink by one percentage point every year. at today's levels of government spending, we're headed to that 90% mark by 2014. wow! alice was director of the office of management and budget under president clinton and was first director of the congressional budget office. welcome to the program. >> thank you very much. >> now that i've terrified everyone, let's look at the short-term thinking here that led to the